Going Green to Save Green: Economic Benefits of Green Infrastructure Practices

American Rivers’ series of new reports highlights the economic benefits of green infrastructure strategies to better manage polluted runoff. These practices, from rain gardens to green roofs, work by capturing rainwater where it falls. By reducing the polluted runoff that flows into rivers and streams, green infrastructure practices play a critical role in protecting clean rivers.

Unlike most traditional water infrastructure, green infrastructure practices can help communities save money while also providing a number of economic benefits that include reduced costs, increased energy efficiency, mitigating flooding and improving air quality.

Visit www.americanrivers.org/goinggreen for more information!

Building on our 2011 Strategic Agenda, EPA’s Green Infrastructure Program is pleased to unveil our new website and to announce the availability of technical assistance to 10-20 partner communities.

Our new website repackages and expands upon our previous website to showcase EPA’s research on green infrastructure and to serve as a gateway to the wealth of resources developed by governmental agencies, academia, non-profits, and the private sector.  Stakeholders will be able to consult our website for up-to-date information on green infrastructure publications, tools, and opportunities.

The first opportunity we are announcing through our website is the availability of direct assistance from EPA to facilitate the use of green infrastructure to protect water quality.  Technical assistance will be provided through EPA contract support, and will be directed to watersheds/sewersheds with significant water quality degradation associated with urban stormwater.  The total EPA assistance available is approximately $950,000, and will be distributed among 10-20 projects.  The value of the assistance available to each project will be approximately $50,000 – $100,000. Letters of interest must be received by April 6, 2012.  

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/index.cfm#tabs-1
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/gi_support.cfm#CommunityPartnerships
Tamara Mittman
US EPA Office of Water, Water Permits Division
1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
202.564.1093

Click here for the conference main page.

AridLID 2012 offers the following continuing education credits:
ASFPM: 12 CEC’s
AICP: 8.5 CM Credits
ASLA: 10 PDH’s

Some featured speakers:
Benjamin Grumbles, President, Clean Water America Alliance, former head Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality
Andy Lipkis, Founder and President, TreePeople
Brad Lancaster, Author and international water harvesting expert
Christine Ten Eyck, acclaimed Southwest landscape architect

…and many more!  Check out the complete list of speakers on the agenda page.

Also, our past conference archives have been updated.  You can now download the complete summary report of the 2011 Arid LID Workshop.

Arid LID 2012
Green Infractructure and Low Impact Development for Arid Environments
Tucson, AZ
March 27-29, 2012

• Abstracts for speakers and “poster plus” sessions are being accepted through October 31, 2011.
• Registration opens early October 2011.
• Sponsorship opportunities are available.

Click here for more more information.

Green for All, in collaboration with the Economic Policy Institute and American Rivers, has published a report analyzing the job-creation potential of a major investment in green infrastructure practices to reduce pollutant discharges to water bodies in the US.  You can read the report here.

Oklahoma State University maintains a very useful low impact development website, including several no-cost webinar opportunities.  For more information, visit the website at http://lid.okstate.edu/.  (Thanks to Roland Renttila, Stormwater Engineer with the City of Albuquerque for the referral!)

The City of Las Cruces, NM has published a summary of papers presented during their August 2010 conference entitled “Green Infrastructure in the Southwest: Challenges and Opportunities”.  To view the summary document, visit Conference Summary Report – City of Las Cruces.

On May 26, U.S. Sens. Tom Udall (D–N.M.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D–R.I.), and Ben Cardin (D–Md.) and Rep. Donna Edwards (D–Md.) introduced the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act. This legislation encourages the research, development, and promotion of green infrastructure, and it would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to accept green infrastructure in permitting activities. Finally, this bill would create as many as five regional research and development centers. (From Water Environment Federation Stormwater Report Vol.1 No. 3)

In early April, the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify barriers and solutions to implementing green infrastructure. WEF will continue working in partnership with the agency on its Green Infrastructure Strategic Agenda and community partnership effort, which was announced April 29. So far, EPA has selected 10 municipalities to showcase green infrastructure benefits and work out implementation details. These cities include: Austin, Texas; Boston; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Puyallup, Wash.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Washington, D.C. and neighboring Anacostia Watershed communities. Read more in EPA’s memo supporting green infrastructure.

The Water Environment Research Foundation has released their BMP SELECT tool.  From the WERF website:

SELECT is a simple planning level tool that enables a stormwater manager to examine the effectiveness of alternative scenarios for controlling stormwater pollution and the whole life cost associated with each scenario. Thus, the manager can make more informed decisions on which practices to permit with some confidence that they will meet imposed TMDL limits and also can have some confidence that the capital and O&M costs involved in implementing BMPs are known.

Learn more or download the SELECT tool for free at the WERF website.